The government on Wednesday sanctioned ₹113.19 crore from the State Disaster Response Fund to provide relief for the victims of monsoon havoc in Kerala, even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh requesting emergency assistance for the State.
Pointing out that thousands of people in 965 villages had been displaced and about 100 killed in floods, landslips and strong winds, Mr. Vijayan called for a Central team to assess the damage caused by the monsoon and fix the compensation.
“As many as 333 houses have been destroyed and more than 8,000 damaged. Crops in 10,000 hectares have also been lost to the floods,” he said.
Mr.Vijayan said the State had requisitioned two more units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Army had been kept on standby. He urged the Centre to despatch a heavy lift helicopter, dinghy boats and rescue equipment for emergency response units.
He reminded the Union Minister that the Centre was yet to respond to a ₹7,340-crore special package submitted last year for the protection of the coast in the wake of Cyclone Ockhi. The State’s financial constraints made it difficult to tackle such disasters on its own, he said.
Meanwhile, the State Cabinet on Wednesday decided to provide a one-time assistance of ₹1,000 each to the persons accommodated in the relief camps opened in the wake of the monsoon havoc. The amount was allotted to compensate the loss of household equipment and dresses in the floods. Persons who had left the relief camps would also be eligible for the assistance.
Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan said District Collectors had been directed to distribute assistance to the stricken families. The compensation for damaged houses has been raised to ₹4,00,000 and assistance up to ₹6,00,000 would be provided for families that lost their property to floods, he said.
